Plump woman blocks cave

An overweight woman got stuck in a well-known South African cave for nearly twelve hours on New Year's Day, trapping 23 others in the process.

The woman was stuck inside the "Tunnel of Love" shortly after noon and was freed with the help of liquid paraffin and a pulley around 11:30 pm (2130 GMT), said Hein Gerstner, manager of the Cango Caves in the Western Cape.

"She was really quite a large woman," he told AFP Tuesday. "She was forewarned at the ticket office and by the guide that she might have difficulty on the tour, but she insisted on going along."

Rescuers from two nearby towns and a private ambulance service were called in to help.

"We used liquid paraffin to grease the surface area and used a pulley to lift her," said Gerstner. "She was eventually carried out on a stretcher."

Twenty-three other people trapped in another tunnel behind the woman were given blankets, water, chocolate bars and ablution buckets during the rescue effort.

The group included two asthmatic children and a diabetic for whom insulin had to be brought from a nearby town, said Gerstner.

Once freed, the woman was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment, and was due to be discharged on Tuesday afternoon. None of the others came to any harm.

"We regularly have people getting stuck in the caves for an hour or so, but never anything on this scale," said Gerstner. "This was a freak. None of our guides, some of whom have been here for more than 40 years, have ever seen anything like it."